When people feel they are cogs in a machine, insignificant in the economic process of providing goods and services, they sense a loss of personal worth and meaning. They drag their feet going to work and cannot wait to get out of their workplaces to do what gives them joy and fulfillment.

Leaders and organizations that nurture their people provide meaning for their employees and recognize that “money will not motivate people to give more to the company. Before they will give more, people need to know that the community is interested in them as individuals.” ¹

People power
Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, in his bestseller, Flow, defines meaning as purpose, resolution and harmony:

• Firstly, he says, “People who find their lives meaningful usually have a goal that is challenging enough to take up all their energies, a goal that can give significance to their lives.”

• Secondly, there must be resolution in pursuing the purpose. “The purpose must result in strivings; intent has to be translated into action.”

• Finally: “Life acquires meaning … when an important goal is pursued with resolution, and all of one’s varied activities fit together into a unified flow experience.” Stating that “the result is that harmony is brought to the consciousness,” he adds: “Whoever achieves this state will never really lack anything else.” ²

The crux of the matter
A critical expression of these self-transcending sources of meaning at work is a sense of calling. Carl Jung tells us that the original meaning of “to have a vocation” is “to be addressed by a voice.” ³ Etymologically, “vocation” comes from the Latin, vocare, meaning “to call” or vocatio, to summon.

We can discern four aspects to the idea of calling.

1. The notion of a literal “call.” In the Old Testament, a call is to catch someone’s ear or to arrest a person’s attention. Samuel heard his name called, but thought it was the prophet Eli when it was God who was summoning him. ⁴

2. The understanding that there is a “becoming” feature in God’s call. God called the light, “day,” and the darkness He called, “night,” and they became what they were named. God’s call is not only a means of identification, but also a pointing to what we are becoming. It hopes for a future that the person or thing so-named will aspire to and fulfill. We are being shaped by our vocation and we are becoming persons defined by our work.

3. In the New Testament, the church is the ekklesia, or the community of the “called-out ones.” It denotes God as the One who calls people to Himself, to be justified and sanctified. A sense of calling is our response to the God who initiates and issues the summons, and is an acknowledgment that He orchestrated and made possible our vocational opportunities.

4. A calling attributes authority to God who calls. Our appropriate response is absolute obedience. It is the responsibility of a “called” person in a vocation to “work … with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not men.” ⁵

When we relate to God, He will call us to Himself and to our place in His world. When we hear and heed His call, we will find meaning and purpose in our work, and divine approval is the icing that tops the experience. As Olympic gold medalist, Eric Liddell, is well known to have expressed, “When I run, I can feel His pleasure.”

Would it not be nice to do something we really enjoy at work and be paid for it too? This ideal is possible only if we know our calling and give expression to that in our workplace. Then our attitude would not be mercenary. Instead, we would seek to make a contribution with our unique skills so life can be enhanced. The fulfillment derived from this is far deeper than what merely material rewards can bring.

This article was first published as ‘Now That’s Life’ in Ponderings En Route, a 2018 book by Peter Chao. It has been excerpted and edited with permission.

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Footnotes
1 Arie de Geus, The Living Company in Harvard Business Review, March-April 1997.
2 Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1990).
3 RFC Hull, Routeledge & Kegan Paul, trans., The Development of Personality in The Collected Works by CG Jung (London, 1954). para 301.
4 1 Samuel 3
5 Colossians 3:23